Zhang Xing and Qin Bao were both nearing Orthodox Meridian Great Perfection. Killing a Chief Banner Officer and a bailiff squad leader no longer required them to stalk their prey in secret, but they still proceeded cautiously. They changed clothes, slipped to the locations, checked the situation, and waited until midnight before masking their faces and climbing into the bedrooms. Then, posing as robbers, they first tied up and gagged the women before taking the gold and silver.
Only at the end did they take the men outside, kill each with a single stroke, and toss them into the courtyards, not forgetting their customary inscriptions... but Zhang Xing changed their name again, calling them the Black-and-White Fiends, and specifically wrote it beneath the eaves... who knew which of them was black and which was white?
Having killed the two men and swept up their gold and silver, they continued through the night, taking advantage of the rain to deliver the money to Tongtuo Ward. They left more with the family whose member had been driven to death, distributed plenty among the others, and even scattered some small pieces of gold and silver along Heaven Street.
By the time they finished, it was already approaching the fourth watch. They returned home just as the rain stopped, and the stars glimmered faintly. Zhang Xing did not know how Qin Bao felt, but after killing that Chief Banner Officer, he could vaguely feel his True Qi stirring and had instead lost all sense of fatigue. He simply accompanied Qin Erlang to give the two horses and mule in the back courtyard more fodder, then fetched two bottles of wine from the kitchen, and they went to sit on Chengfu Ward's southern wall together.
The sky had yet to brighten, but the Luo River